79R18280 MW-D

By:  Alonzo                                                       H.R. No. 1937



R E S O L U T I O N
	WHEREAS, Benito Juárez, who was instrumental in bringing 
sweeping changes to Mexican government and society during the 
mid-19th century, was born on March 21, 1806; and
	WHEREAS, A Zapotec Indian and native of Oaxaca, Sr. Juárez 
was a teenager when he gained the patronage of the family in whose 
home his sister was working as a servant; tutored privately at 
first, he graduated from the Franciscan seminary in Oaxaca in 1827 
and received a law degree from the Institute of Science and Art in 
1834; and
	WHEREAS, Sr. Juárez was attracted to politics at an early age 
and spent virtually all of his adult life either in government or 
waging opposition; he served as a city councilman for Oaxaca from 
1831 to 1833, during which time he strongly supported Indian 
rights, and in the 1840s he served as a civil judge and federal 
deputy; from 1847 to 1852 he held the governorship of Oaxaca; and
	WHEREAS, Driven into exile when Antonio López de Santa Anna 
came to power in 1853, Sr. Juárez joined the successful 
revolutionary movement against him; after Santa Anna himself was 
forced into exile, Sr. Juárez became minister of justice; while 
serving in that post he was responsible for a law that limited the 
jurisdiction of church courts to ecclesiastical cases; and
	WHEREAS, After serving again as governor of Oaxaca, Sr. 
Juárez became minister of the interior in November 1857 and the next 
month took office as chief justice of the Supreme Court; when a 
military coup deposed the government, he declared himself 
president, in accordance with the constitutional line of 
succession, and led the victorious resistance to the usurpers in 
the Reform War of 1858-1861; and
	WHEREAS, Sr. Juárez assumed the presidency officially in 
1861; soon, however, he found himself fighting the French, who 
captured Mexico City in 1863 and set up a puppet regime; once again 
Sr. Juárez and his troops prevailed, with the United States clearly 
favoring their cause, and in 1867 he was again elected president; 
and
	WHEREAS, Plagued with numerous difficulties throughout his 
final term, Sr. Juárez died in office on July 17, 1872; in 1888, the 
city of El Paso del Norte was renamed Ciudad Juárez in his honor; 
and
	WHEREAS, Notwithstanding the difficulties of his final 
years, Benito Juárez remains a towering figure in the history of 
Mexico; he was instrumental in the transfer of political power from 
creoles to mestizos, in asserting the authority of civil law, and in 
preserving the nation's autonomy in the face of foreign invasion, 
and it is a privilege to honor the memory of this national hero; 
now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 79th Texas 
Legislature hereby pay special tribute to the life of the esteemed 
Mexican statesman Benito Juárez on March 21, 2006, the 200th 
anniversary of his birth.